Stay Awake
by BeccaRawrsATL
Summary: **All Time Low fanfic** Melody is your average, quiet teen living with her Aunt and Uncle is Baltimore. When her cousin visits with his band, they turn her life upside down. Together, they try to make Melody smile and see true happiness after the tragic accident that tore her world apart.
1. I- Once Upon A Time

My feet slap softly on the concrete sidewalk, playful screaming and laughing can be heard all around me. The spring hair wraps around me like a blanket; the hot sun shining its rays on me as I walk, the cool breeze keeping me from dying in it.

I walk up the stone steps of the house and reach into my bag for my keys, opening the front door and shutting it softly behind me as I enter the threshold.

"Aunt Lucy, Uncle Ed, I'm home," I call out. My voice echoes throughout the house, bouncing off the walls. All I here is silence as I shrug off my backpack and drop it on the wall near the door. Peering my ears for any slight noise, I begin walking towards the kitchen.

"Hello?" I call out once more, receiving the reply of silence. Guess they weren't home.

Standing alone in the sparkle clean kitchen, I grab an apple, the sun favoring the back of the house as the evening aged. I bit into the apple, eating it as I retraced my steps to the front entrance and retrieved my backpack before bounding up the stairs and locking myself away in my bedroom.

I sink my teeth into the apple to hold it and free my hands so I can unzip my bag. Reaching in, I grab and drop my text books onto my desk. They slap against the wood and bang against one another as I empty the bag, tossing it to the side. Biting a chunk of the apple off, I regain hold of it and flop onto my bed, chewing absentmindedly as I stare at the ceiling covered in band posters.

Downstairs the home phone rings. I groan in response before rolling off the bed and quickly running down the stairs. I almost made it home free when the toe of my sneaker caught the second to last step and I went face first, taking the coat rack with me.

The phone stops ringing and the answering machine picks it up.

"Hello you've reached the house of Lucy and Edward Merrick," my Aunts automatic voice says quite clearly through the speakers, replaying our recorded voices throughout the house. In the distance you can hear the faint sound of my voice saying, "and Melody!" You can legitimately hear the annoyed look on Aunt Lucy's expression through the silence. She continues, "We're sorry we can't come to the phone right. We'll try to return your call as soon as possible." Beep.

I groan, wiggling under the coat rack with no success in getting free. My limbs were entangled in the coats, trapped under the metal web, unable to free myself. After a few more failed attempts of escaping, I concluded I would have to lie here and wait until Aunt Lucy and Uncle Ed get home from where they went and free me. I prayed they wouldn't be too long.

The sun shone through the back door, creating an orange glow that casted on the wall going into the kitchen. I watched as the orange glow darkened and moved farther away, seeping into the kitchen until it was completely gone and I was left in the dark. With the sun absent to warm the air, the temperature mapped those of the breeze I experienced, sending goosebumps on my arms from the wind hissing through the opened windows. With all these coats on top of me, I still had one arm exposed, enough to keep the rest of my body coated in goosebumps.

From the window above, car lights sliced through the dark house, lighting a path way up the stairs. It was an eerie scene, and to be honest kind of freaked me out. Nothingless, hope was restored as the sound of my Aunt and Uncle retuning home filled the silent house.

I tried once again to wiggle free, coming out with the same results. Releasing a frustrated breath, I endured these last few minutes I imprisonment as I listened to my Aunt and Uncle come up to the house. Listening to their familiar voices, I calmed down, my frustration flickering out. My heart rate went up as soon as laughter boomed through the open windows. My Aunt and Uncle were not alone.

Not only did I have to face them when they walked through the door and found me trapped under their coat rack, possibly broken, I have to face the embarrassment of their guests also. Great.

"Yeah," I heard Uncle Ed say. There was the jangle of keys as he searched for the one to the door and unlocked it. "The best food you're going to find is in downtown-"

Uncle Ed never finished his sentence because he just so happened to push the door open- or try to at least. It hit the bottom of the coat rack, one of the branches stabbing into my side. I yelped out in pain and the door stopped opening immediately.

"Melody?" Uncle Ed spoke into the dark. Confusion and concern laced his voice as he took this in for a second, figuring out another way in. Apparently only the very bottom of the coat tree was in front of the door, Uncle Ed knocking it out of the way when he opened the door. This was figured out as he eased the door open, fully exposing him and Aunt Lucy, who shuffled close behind him. All voices of the party with them had stopped, joining in on the confused silence of this unexpected event.

"Hi Uncle Ed," I said innocently as he flipped on the switch to the front porch, giving them light to see into the house, and where I lay next to the door.

"Melody!" Uncle Ed said. He rushed in and gripped the tree branch, attempting to get it off of me. With the mess of coats attached to it and sprawled all over me in a mess of entangled fabric and limbs, it was a tricky puzzle for the man. A few extra hands reached in and helped him, lifting the coat rack off of me, freeing me. I breathed out a puff of air that had been begging to escape since the weight of the rack fell on me. A pair of hands grabbed either of my biceps and lifted me to my feet; their strong grips lifting me airborne for a few milliseconds before I was balanced on the ground,

"Melody Anna Merrick," Aunt Lucy gasped. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"Yes," I breathed out. "I'm fine. I just fell down the stairs and took the tree branch down with me." I admitted this shamefully, red flushing my cheeks and I stared down at my black Converse.

Aunt Lucy released an irritated sigh, tucking her purse under her arm. "Well I'm glad you're okay."

"Just no more tripping and falling and taking innocent bystanders with you," Uncle Ed joked, giving a wink. I rolled my eyes, a grin spreading across my face.

"It could be worse," I said. "I could have burned down the house, or worse, thrown a _party_."

Uncle Ed's playful smile never left his face. Aunt Lucy just stood there, saying, "Yes like a normal teenager," before turning and leaving the room.

"Yeah but you're not a normal teenager, aren't you Mel?" A male voice said from behind me. I had forgotten all about how audience for a moment. I quickly turned and looked at the group, staring at them in confusion for a moment for the familiarity, and then the light bulb clicked.

A warm grin spread across my face. "No, I'm not."

Zack grinned back at me. "It's good to you see again, Mel."

* * *

**I am back with another All Time Low fanfic! Woo! I've been debating whether or not to start writing another ATL fic to post, but obviously decided why the hell not and did. This may have been a bad idea. Bear with me please. **


	2. II- Melody

The night sky sparkles with stars shining brightly, completely captivating me as I stare up at them in awe. Insomnias debt was paid by the clear night, the chilly breezes wrapping around my bare legs exposed from my boxer-pajamas shorts. A notebook balanced on my knee, its foot tucked under the thigh of the opposing one as it swung lightly back and forth from my perch on the wooden railing in the backyard. The book was folded, exposing the page filled with printed ink of words; creativity at its finest.

Crickets chirped in a melody, frogs croaked from the nearby pond. A small smile crept cross my lips at the beauty, but it soon vanquished as memories of nights like this flooded into my vision, prickling tears to my eyes.

I pressed the back of my hand to the corners of my eyes and sniffled. Beautiful spring nights like these were taken advantage of by my parents with weekend camping trips to nearby campsites, or a simple blanket laid out on the yard to stargaze, completed with hot chocolate in thermals. It was a night like this when the accident happened.

We were on our way back from the store, crossing over a bridge that expanded over a murky, still lake. Ear buds in, I had my head rested against the seatbelt, glancing out at the black expansion, not paying attention to the car that crossed over the median and came at us right on until I was flipped upside down. Multiple cars were involved, slamming into us, breaking us apart forever.

I suffered various wounds including a broken femur, broken wrist, a severe concussion, and erupted appendix. A long ugly scar laid visible on the surface along my rib cage and down my side, almost meeting the scar from where my appendix was removed. The scar on my heart never fully healed.

I lost my parents in that accident, their injuries too severe. I was told my dad was gone at head on impact. Even if we were the only ones at that road when that car hit, I would've lost my dad anyways. My mom died from several serve injuries from the multiple hitting's from other cars, dying in the hospital a few days later.

Forever I face the pain and hurt, the devastation, from that one night because some jackass wanted to be a mindless idiot. Now I have to wake up every day and face the pain, flashbacks from that night replaying over and over and over again in a continuous loop.

Being parentless, my Aunt and Uncle took me in, thankfully. The idea of being put into a foster home frightened me after the fact. At the time, I was in a haze where I felt and saw nothing but pain.

Aunt Lucy and Uncle Ed have helped me beyond words. They helped lead me down the right path when I could barely see straight. Though I still feel pain from what had happened that night, I can feel it starting to be a bit better. I have an Aunt and Uncle that love me, a roof over my head, a steady home to return to everyday. Since I wasn't completely blinded by pain anymore, I was able to find gratefulness in this.

The lights in the house behind me were off, a single light illuminated from above the stove, a star on a pitch black backdrop. Everyone was asleep, except for me. Ever since that night I found it nearly impossible to find sleep any time before three am. Usually I would pull out my IPod and fall asleep with it on shuffle or write, and on nice nights like tonight I would sneak out to the back to write under the moonlight.

_============The Next Day===========_

~*~ Zack's POV ~*~

I stand in the kitchen with Aunt Lucy as she dries dishes, stacking them in their perspected cupboards neatly. We've spent the day talking of the band and our new album, touring and what not. The rest of the guys were out back, tossing around a football and acting like the bunch of idiots they were.

Even though I had a lot of catching up to do with my Aunt and Uncle, there was one topic I wanted to cover, and needed to know about.

Melody was at school but should be due for lunch at the noon hour. I wondered if she would be coming home for lunch. Does she do that? Does every day she take a break from the high school and eat lunch with my Aunt instead? Or does she stay and have lunch in the cafeteria, or outside in the quad with her friends? Do they go up to a Taco Bell or Burger King for lunch?

My cousin and I weren't close. I've seen her at family barbeques and sometimes we would talk, and other times when my Aunt and Uncle came over and she tagged along. Usually she kept to herself. When we were younger we were close and always played together. As we grew up and times changed, our relationship moving to respectable distance. It's not that we didn't get along, we just weren't best friends.

When the news of the passing of my Aunt and Uncle, devastation followed throughout the rest of the family. Immediately I grew concern for Melody. She was a carefree soul, a dreamer, a youngling with her head in the clouds. To have this tragedy strike her had to destroy her beyond words. She was always so happy, and though she smiled the previous night, I saw the darkness that haunted her in her eyes.

Before I could ask any of this, Aunt Lucy spoke, answering my question.

"Melody should be on her way home for lunch soon," she sighed, rinsing a sponge off in the sink.

"Hmm," I hummed. "Does she usually?"

"On most days," my Aunt replied lazily as she wiped down the counters. "Usually she comes to pick up her lunch and leaves. Sometimes she stays, but lately she's been coming home to eat."

I wondered why such a change in schedule? I knew my Aunt and Uncle haven't talked to her about my arrival since it was last minute, and judging of the surprise that crossed her expression last night when she saw me, she had no clue.

"How has she been doing?" I finally asked.

Aunt Lucy is silent as she finishes her cleaning of the counters. She rinses the sponge and drops it near the faucet. Turning to me, she gives me a sad look.

"She's doing better," she answers, staring at a space in the floor. She's distance for a moment before looking at me. "After the accident she went into shock, just completely ripping herself from the world. We took her to countless of therapist, but she would never open up to them. Finally we found one that helped her. It was only a few months ago before she started coming into form again. Each day is another step to recovery."

I joined Aunt Lucy in staring off into outer space. Poor Mel. It was hard for all of us to lose Aunt Jessica and Uncle Hunter, but for Mel she lost both of her parents. Her silence and distance could only be understandable.

I slowly nodded. I was glad to hear she had been doing better lately, becoming more human again. Yet, the look in her eyes last night, even through happiness, was just too dark and depressing to carry normally. God could only know what she was like on a bad day, and something told me I didn't want to know.

Aunt Lucy stared out the window overlooking the back yard. A tall dark wooden fence blocked off the neighbor's yard, keeping only the top half and the roof of their house in sight. Lining the fence was white stones splitting the green span of grass from the mulch and colorful flowers blooming in the spring weather. I watched as Jack jumped onto of Rian, Alex following pursuit and everyone falling to the ground in laughter. Aunt Lucy didn't move her gaze from the scene as she spoke to me.

"Zack I have a favor to ask you," though she talks in the present, her eyes are far away. "It's the reason I allowed you to stay here."

"What is it?" I say, turning to look at her. She turns to look at me then, the haunting expression never leaving her features.

"I want you to help Melody," she said. "I've tried everything but she's missing something. Since you guys seem full of life and happiness, I was wondering if you would be willing to take her in, give her life and show her this isn't the end of the world. I know, it was a complete devastation to lose Jessica and Hunter to the accident, and God knows what the poor girl really was feeling. But she deserves to be happy, and I want the best for her."

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure the guys will have no problem with it. We're here for a break to write anyways. That seems on Mel's level, maybe she can help."

"That would be great," Aunt Lucy said. "It will give her something to do, get her mind off everything."

I nod again. "We'll take her in."

A small, sad smile makes its way across Aunt Lucy's face. "Thank you Zack. You're a good boy, making your parents proud."

I manage a smile at the compliment and watch as Jack falls to the round after Rian threw the ball which resulted in Jack getting hit in the nuts.


End file.
